An improvised explosive went off about 8.20 a.m. on a District Line train on Friday.Twenty-nine were reported injured in connection to the blast and a resulting stampede at Parsons Green station.Terror threat has been raised to ‘critical,’ Prime Minister Theresa May said.Islamic State claims responsibility for attack.Police make a “significant arrest” at Dover port.

caption

A photograph shared on social media showing a bag on fire at Parsons Green station on the London Underground.

source

Sylvain Pennic

LONDON – The UK’s terror threat level has been raised to “critical” after an improvised explosive device on a London Underground train injured 29 people, Prime Minister Theresa May said.

The threat level is the UK’s highest and indicates that authorities believe another attack is imminent.

Armed police evacuated and are searching a residential address in Sunbury, Surrey, as part of the police probe.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “The national threat level has now been raised to ‘critical’ after the evil and cowardly terrorist attack at Parsons Green. As the Prime Minister has said, this is our highest level of security preparedness.”

“I utterly condemn the hideous individuals who target innocent people and attempt to use terror to harm us and destroy our way of life,” he said.

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old man was arrested in the port area of Dover on Saturday morning by police investigating the Parsons Green terror attack.

Kent police made the arrest and the man remains in custody at a local police station. He will be transferred to a south London police station, police said.

“Hundreds” of officers from London’s Metropolitan Police have been deployed in the hunt for the perpetrators of the attack on Parsons Green station London on Friday morning, a senior officer said.

The bomb went off about 8.20 a.m. on a District Line train on Friday, which was carrying rush-hour commuters through suburban west London to the centre of the city.

caption

An ambulance and police officers outside Parsons Green station on Friday morning.

source

Reuters

Metropolitan Police detectives are scouring CCTV footage, interviewing witnesses and examining forensic evidence in the hope of identifying those responsible, according to a statement by Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.

Images on social media showed what appeared to be the device in the immediate aftermath of the attack – a burning white bucket inside a shopping bag, with wires sticking out of the back.

A statement from England’s National Health Service said 29 people had been injured and were being treated in hospital. The police said most of the injuries were burns.

Witnesses described a “fireball” emanating from the device, prompting a rush of people leaving the train and the platform. Some spoke of a “stampede” through the station following the initial blast.

Ola Fayankinnu, who was on the train, told the Reuters news agency: “I was on second carriage from the back. I just heard a kind of whoosh. I looked up and saw the whole carriage engulfed in flames making its way towards me.”

Another, Peter Crowley, posted images appearing to show burns he had sustained from what he described as a “fireball” caused by the device.

A woman, Kathrine Mason, said she narrowly avoided injury after being saved from a stampede on a staircase inside the station.

To the man that pulled me out of the pile of people on the stairs during the stampede at Parsons Green – thank you. Thank you so much.

Police forensics experts are examining the device. Several media outlets citing British security sources – including Sky News, CNN, and the BBC – reported that the explosive was on a timer, raising the prospect that any attackers left the train before the device went off.

Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner, gave a statement to reports outside the force’s headquarters at New Scotland Yard.

He said: “There are many urgent inquiries ongoing with hundreds of detectives involved, looking at CCTV, forensic work and speaking to witnesses.”